Costello, Truitt campaign Saturday one door at a time

Staff photo by Jim Callahan
State Rep. Dan Truitt, foreground, describes to volunteers how they were going to introduce Ryan Costello, background, the Republican candidate for Congress to voters while campaigning Saturday.

WEST CHESTER — After loading up on donuts and coffee at headquarters, a small group of volunteers went door-to-door for Ryan Costello’s campaign for Congress Saturday morning.

Leader of the expedition was State Rep. Dan Truitt, something of a Republican Party door-warrior in his two campaigns for office.

“If you wait until the end, it’s too late,” said Truitt, of East Goshen. “You need to work setting up the infrastructure over the summer.”

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Truitt’s 156th state representative district includes West Chester and township’s immediately near the borough. The area leans Democratic overall, but he defeated a Democratic incumbent in 2010 and a challenge in 2012. His dedicated personal campaigning has been credited — even by Democrats.

Costello, chairman of the Chester County Board of Commissioners, is seeking to succeed Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach as representative in the 6th Congressional District, an area that includes a large part of Chester County, and parts of Montgomery, Berks and Lebanon counties.

He is opposed by Democrat Manan Trivedi, a medical doctor from Reading, who is making this third run for the seat. Trivedi lost to Gerlach in 2010 and 2012. He was persuaded to go for a third time after Gerlach announced his retirement in January.

The district trends Republican in voting, but is not considered a statistical lock.

“If you look at this congressional district, it is not one of those safe seats in this country,” said Costello to the 20 or 25 volunteers at his headquarters on North Walnut Street. He noted that most congressional districts in the United States have been gerrymandered in favor of one party or the other. “The extremes sort of dictates policy out of Washington, rather than folks coming together and incrementally trying to improve the daily condition of ordinary Americans across this country,” he said.

Costello said he was going to campaign as a person trying to bridge the gap between the division of parties in Washington.

He admitted his difficulty — “challenge” — as a campaigner would be to talk about the things that he felt were wrong, but to not be negative. “You always have to view things positively even when frustrated,” he told the workers.

“As a township supervisor, as county commissioner, I listen, learn, I work with others, and then I try to lead — with others,” he said to the group. “That’s the kind of representation this district deserves, that’s the kind of leadership it has had with Congressman Gerlach.”

After that quick pep talk, the group divvied up lists of streets with about 50 or so registered voters.

Costello was sticking to Truitt. “Where are we going?” he asked.

“I have a couple streets down in Thornbury picked out if that’s OK,” said Truitt.

Costello nodded.

“These are new people from redistricting,” said Truitt. “I’ve never been down there before.”